Old Enough To Remember?

I have a slide rule tucked away in my stash somewhere.... got it in high school .... likely back in 1965. Don't know the brand just now.
Somehow I escaped getting the TI calculator, but it was being pushed on us.....
 
Slammer said:
I learned how to use a slide rule at school and literally had the: „you won’t always have an electric calculator with you…!“ Lesson. That did not age well I suppose.
But my father had one, given to him by his instructor back in the fifties.
It was lovely, English made, of course. In a Green leather holster. Made from jet black ebony wood and a (I believe it to be) ivory scale.
The story was that it was Victorian and already an antique. Knowing it was safe where it was I left it with step mum when he died.
Recently I went to claim it only to find that out of sheer painful ignorance she had thrown it away. Along with other treasures that belonged to me.
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I had a generic white plastic slide rule in high school... yes, I was a serious math & science nerd. That experience came in handy because later, when I started flying, I bought a surplus military pilot's circular slide rule for in flight calculations.
 
JetRanger said:
I had a generic white plastic slide rule in high school... yes, I was a serious math & science nerd. That experience came in handy because later, when I started flying, I bought a surplus military pilot's circular slide rule for in flight calculations.
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E6B?
1734143869935.png
 
JetRanger said:
I had a generic white plastic slide rule in high school... yes, I was a serious math & science nerd. That experience came in handy because later, when I started flying, I bought a surplus military pilot's circular slide rule for in flight calculations.
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Got one of those too - E6B?
Went through ground school and passed.
When it came to flying or buying a new motorcycle - well we know how that came out! ;)
 
bdalameda said:
E6B?
1734143869935.png
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I had an E6B but I also had something like this.
Being designed for the military, mine could also calculate an intercept course for a target aircraft... very handy in a Cessna 150!. :tongue:
Now I'll have to dig around to see if I still have it... I'll post a pic if I find it
 

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Slammer said:
Oh they are nice.
This was mine at school and I still have it... somewhere in a box, safely tucked away in my Lager.
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Mine is a genuine K&E - which was supposed to be one of the best out there.
I was studying to be an aerospace engineer but the draft changed all of that ... ;)
 
Slammer said:
This was mine at school and I still have it... somewhere in a box, safely tucked away in my Lager.
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Yep, received a brief (mandatory!) training on those notorious Aristo things... while being forced to purchase a, just as notorious, TI-30...

Later I'd a PADI wheel (successor of the tables) for estimating the blood gas saturation during (repetetive) scuba dives... now obsolete due dive computers...

I also had a refrigerant slider, showing vapor/saturation pressure/temperatures for various refrigerants... now obsolete due Ref-App...

There even was a CARRIER Wheel, enabling one to calculate required cooling capacity for rooms (basically addition of various factors, external & internal loads...)

At least I'm still off a generation who'll know what to do/keep performing when the power goes out...
 
ST1100Y said:
Later I'd a PADI wheel (successor of the tables) for estimating the blood gas saturation during (repetetive) scuba dives... now obsolete due dive computers...
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My PADI dive tables are obsolete?
Mine is still in my dive bag with my mask and fins and log book.
But it's only a plastic card, about 5x7. And clipped to that is a same-sized blank plastic "slate" for writing messages when my charades don't work at depth.
 
Sadlsor said:
My PADI dive tables are obsolete?
Mine is still in my dive bag with my mask and fins and log book.
But it's only a plastic card, about 5x7. And clipped to that is a same-sized blank plastic "slate" for writing messages when my charades don't work at depth.
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Well, did you write on the 'slate' with a waterproof pen? ;)
 
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Sadlsor said:
My PADI dive tables are obsolete?
Mine is still in my dive bag with my mask and fins and log book.
But it's only a plastic card, about 5x7. And clipped to that is a same-sized blank plastic "slate" for writing messages when my charades don't work at depth.
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Ah, like with computers where they already outdated upon release... :sneaky:
(tables where still based on Navy estimations and dive medicine yet not fully in the focus... )

RDP-Tables-1980s.jpg


Now we either have saturation computer as wrist band units, or in the console, embedded with the pressure-gauge (which is good as they also take the individual's actual air/gas consumption under consideration...)
 
Uncle Phil said:
Well, did you write on the 'slate' with a waterproof pin? ;)
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Either with crayons or a standard, soft pencil... and as @Sadlsor expresses, is the latter easier to erase* from those plastic sheets... (* as well tethered to the slate...)
Spent hours in mapping underwater shorelines, with contour lines, navigational way-points, sea-live spotted there, etc...
Ever installed a (rope) grid?
Swam a search grid by compass?
More fun: doing it at night...
 
jodog said:
I was amazed to find these still available. Would make a nice xmas gift to me, in case anyone is stumped on what to get.
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So on a whim I ordered a new superball. Seems that the balls shrank over the years. The new ones are substantially smaller than the 1965 version. Cost savings? Trying to reduce breakage? I don't know but since I have time on my hands I may fire off an inquiry to the WhamO company.
 
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